


A Robotic Angel

by Shanoodle



Category: Mother : EarthBound Zero
Genre: F/M, Feels, Robots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-29
Updated: 2015-07-29
Packaged: 2018-04-11 20:01:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4450304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shanoodle/pseuds/Shanoodle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ninten, Ana, and Lloyd attempt to revive Eve.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Robotic Angel

**Author's Note:**

> Written for MOTHER's 26th anniversary. Jeez-Ninten on Tumblr helped edit some of this!

**_Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep. . . ._ **

_I grab Ana and Lloyd by the wrists, 'n we start running. None of the robots move, but the noises from Eve keep on coming, faster 'n faster, until it sounds like just one playin' endlessly._

_I glance back. Eve's latched onto R7038XX and refuses to let go._

_We keep running, heading toward the opposite end of the ledge. Not even halfway there, I hear an explosion, and a gigantic gust of air knocks us down. You could feel the ground shaking. And when another explosion comes, twice as loud, it feels like the whole planet's splitting open._

_Bits of metal land all around us, clanging against the rock. Some of 'em are on fire. I throw my arms over my head and curl up. A couple hit me in the neck, and I nearly bite my tongue off._

_Eventually, the clangs stop. I'm the first to get up. I turn around, 'n my body goes cold._

_"Eve!"_

_Most of her body's scattered across the ground, covered in flames. Her torso lays against the rock face, filled with holes. You could see the broken wires inside them._

_All three of us kneel down in front of the wreckage. The charred metal pops 'n sputters._

_"We just met her," I say. My fists are clenched, fingernails digging into my skin. Someone grabs my shoulder._

_"I know." Lloyd doesn't even sound upset. "But we can't stay here. It's too dangerous."_

_"We can't just leave! " I tell him, blinkin' away tears. "You're the egghead; can't you fix her?"_

_"I don't know, but even if I could, this isn't the time." He pauses. "I'm sorry."_

_I stand up, shoving his arm off me. Everything's hard to see now._

_". . . TEN," a voice says. There's a buzzing noise in it._

_"Eve?"_

_"NINTEN. COME HERE."_

_Mouth wide open, I look back. My friends're just as shocked as I am. Ana gestures toward her, 'n Lloyd just nods along. So, swallowing, I step closer._

_"I'm here, Eve. You're. . . ." I look in the holes again, and I take a deep breath. ". . . You're gonna be okay."_

_"INCORRECT. MY MISSION WAS TO PROTECT YOU." A few sparks fly out of her neck. "AS YOUR SERVANT, MY DESTRUCTION WAS-WAS-WAS-WAS-WAS-WAS. . . ."_

_I smack her torso._

_". . .WAS INEVITIABLE. YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID ANY LONGER; I HAVE DESTROYED THE ENEMY ROBOT."_

_I look below the cliff. R7038XX lays in a chasm, his limbs smashed 'n bent between the rock 'n his body. He has a hole in his back big enough to drive a truck through._

_I turn around, my hands shaking._

_Ana reaches out and pats Eve's arm, which dangles from her shoulder by just a couple wires. "You're not our servant or anythin' like that. You're a friend. A great one. You saved our lives so many times."_

_"We're glad we found you," Lloyd quietly says. Even he seems at a loss for words._

_"Yeah." I wipe my eyes. "You're really great."_

_And we all come around and hug her._

_When we let go, she just looks at us. Her eyes flicker._

_I tap her head. "Eve?"_

_"I APOLOGIZE. MY CIRCUITS ARE NO LONGER FUCTIONING CORRECTLY." Eve's head tilts to the side. "MAY I INQUIRE SOMETHING?"_

_"Anything."_

_"WOULD GEORGE BE PROUD OF MY ACCOMPLISHMENTS?"_

_I take a deep breath. "Of course he would."_

_"I agree," says Lloyd. "You've protected us, even at your own risk. I don't know George very well, but I absolutely think he'd be proud of you."_

_"Yeah. You've done so much for us." Ana pats her arm again. "You'd make anybody happy."_

_"THANK YOU." Her eyes flicker again. "THERE IS SOMETHING HE WANTED ALL OF YOU TO HEAR. I URGE YOU TO REMEMBER IT."_

_The light on her chestplate glows so bright it could light up a lake. And she starts to sing in a voice that doesn't belong to her. A woman's voice._

_"Sing a melody of. . . ."_

_At the end, the light shuts off. So do her eyes._

_We look at each other again, but don't say anything. What could we say? We all know who it was._

* * *

Someone's shakin' my shoulder. I look up.

Ana's face is right in front of mine. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just thinkin' about Eve."

"Same here. But she'll be fixed soon. Lloyd's got this." Ana gives my nose a peck and takes a seat next to me on the carpet. She stares up at all the sci-fi posters coverin' the wall.

All the clangin' and buzzin' and whirrin' from his bedroom could wake up a dinosaur. He's hard at work, but he's _been_ hard at work for about a couple hours now. It's funny; when we picked up Eve, he said she wouldn't take very long to fix. Matter of fact, we all thought the hardest part would be getting her down the mountain, even with teleporting and telekinesis. And considerin' how Lloyd's room ain't just full of toys, but real honest-to-goodness robots he made himself, I believed it. But I dunno now.

Back when Giegue was causin' trouble, we found her in a lab my great-grampa built. First time I saw her, I just stared -- a football-shaped head, with arms that didn't look like they could lift a car (a very important goal for robots). And 'cause of it, I outright laughed when she said she'd protect me. I stopped laughing when she suplexed a Mook, though.

For a little while, we were untouchable. Eve wouldn't let anything get in five feet of us before knockin' 'em down. One time, she grabbed a Megaborg and pulled it apart like a cheap action figure. And another, she threw a Starman so hard it went flyin' right off the mountain. It was awesome! We all loved her, and we still do.

But she's gone now. That stupid trashcan killed her. Sure, Eve literally blew up in his face, and I think I'd laugh at it otherwise, but not here.

I dunno much about robots, but Eve's gotta have consciousness, right? I don't think I'll really die when I grow up, 'cause I still have consciousness, and I can't imagine that just blowing out like a candle or whatever it does. If Lloyd can't fix her, where will she go? Will she even go anywhere? Either way, I'll lose my only other connection to my great-grampa, but it'd still be nice to know her life wasn't really cut short.

"Can I ask you somethin' stupid?" I tell Ana.

She turns, taking my hand in hers. "There's no such thing as a stupid question. Go ahead."

"Um, well. . . ." I bite my lip. "Do ya think robots go to Heaven?"

Her smile disappears. "Honestly, I don't know. To me, the Bible never mentions anythin' about robots and stuff."

"Oh." I sniffle.

She takes my hand, her eyes wide. "I'm not sayin' it can't happen or anything! It's just . . . it's all an interpretation thing. Someone else might tell you they can!"

"But I'm not askin' someone else. I'm askin' you."

Ana looks to the side, her forehead wrinkling up.

"Well . . . Eve was a good friend, yeah? Literally built to protect us -- or you." She nods her head. "I don't see why she wouldn't go to Heaven."

I lean forward and kiss her cheeks. "Thanks, Ana."

They turn red. "Sorry it's not a very good answer."

I shrug. "Good enough for me."

We turn back to the wall, hand in hand. For the next fifteen minutes, we talk about Eve and all the stuff she did for us on that mountain. And how George could've known to put part of the song in her. Did he go to Magicant too? Did he learn the song, somehow get locked out of Magicant, and teach it to a bunch of things?

By the time the noises stop, we still don't got an answer. Afterward, the light in the hallway cuts out.

The door opens, and Lloyd sticks his head out. The scarf around his forehead's covered in sweat, and the rest of him looks like he ran a mile straight through dirt.

"Did you fix her?" I say.

His mouth flattens. "I don't know about 'fix'. But I think you both better see this."

Lookin' at each other, Ana and I get up and walk inside.

All the curtains are drawn, and the bedroom light's off. We have to squint to see anythin'.

"Lloyd, it's way too dark in here!" Ana reaches out, and a teeny-tiny fire comes to life in her hand. For the moment, at least we can see a few inches in front of us, even though everything's all orange.

"Yeah, sorry," Lloyd says. "Kinda need all I can get."

Eve's torso -- the only part that wasn't blown to hell -- stands on a metal table in the middle of the room. A bunch of wires and power cords run out of it, leading God knows where. If anything, her body doesn't even have a dent in it anymore.

Squinting, we tiptoe our way past all the comic books and tools on the floor and stand in front of the table. Lloyd's ducking underneath, fiddling with a panel of switches and buttons.

"She's got enough power to light this house right now. I gave her a little, and that light on her chestplate lit up for a second." He flips a switch, and the panel starts humming. "I think this oughta. . . ." He flips a few more switches, then presses a button.

The light on her chestplate flashes bright enough to turn the whole room pink. She hisses like a bad TV set. And instead of Eve, a woman's voice speaks to us. And the second I hear it, I freeze.

> _Take a melody._
> 
> _Simple as can be._
> 
> _Give it some words, and_
> 
> _Sweet harmony._
> 
> _Raise your voices!_
> 
> _All day long now, love grows strong now._
> 
> _Sing a melody of love._
> 
> _Oh, of love._

The sound 'n voice disappear, and with them, the light buzzes 'n flickers off. The rest of the room goes dark.

"C-can you turn her back on?" I say.

Lloyd returns to the panel. He flips every switch and presses every button, but all the light does is flicker. Eve doesn't do anything else.

"I'm sorry," he says. "I don't know what's wrong, but it's not working anymore." His mouth tightens again. "If you want, I can take another crack at it."

I shake my head. "No. I don't think it'll do anything."

Lloyd unties his scarf, frowning. "I'm really sorry, Ninten. I did the best I could."

A tear goes down my face, and I wipe it off. "It's okay.

"U-uh, maybe I can find out something over the weekend! I mean, there's stuff in here I've never even seen before, and she was a lot of fun to work on. She could still--"

"Lloyd," Ana says. Her arms wrap around me.

He looks down. "Sorry."

I sniffle and rub my eyes. "I thi-think we should bury her."

Lloyd comes forward and joins in. I don't have much room to move, but it's incredibly warm

"I think we-we should bury her too," Ana says a moment later.

"Yeah," Lloyd replies. "Keeping her here . . . it doesn't feel right. Even if she's a robot."

We spend the next minute like that.

* * *

Lloyd and I stand over the hole we dug. George's grave sits beside it. I still don't know if it was a recording or if he was really talking to me last time. But either way, he's speechless.

We pick up Eve. Her body's heavy enough that we can barely lift it off the ground, and when we have her over the grave, we just drop it in like a boulder. I wish there was an easier way of doing that.

I dunno where Ana's gone. She said she wanted to make somethin', and she teleported away. Whatever it is, it'd better justify leavin' us to dig her grave alone. It's somethin' we should do together.

I walk over to the edge of the cliff and look out. Nothin' but bears and gargoyles.

"You see her?" Lloyd says.

"No." I breathe a sigh. "I'm sick of waiting. Let's just bury her."

And that's what we do.

By the time it's done, I'm gripping the end of my shovel, knuckles white as ice.

"This is stupid!" I throw it away. "Ana should be back by now! After all that talk about burying Eve, she freakin' bails on us!"

"Easy." Lloyd grabs my shoulders. "She said she was making something. If she's taking this long, it's got to be good, don't you think?"

"It better be. This ain't something you should ignore."

We sit around by the grave, waiting and waiting.

Finally, a portal opens in front of us, and Ana speeds out, stopping just in front of a rock. She's carryin' something.

I start walkin' toward her. "Whatever you've been making, it'd better look--"

Ana turns around.

A wooden cross half her size is in her arms. Not even twigs, but actual logs of wood, covered in finish that makes it shine under the sun. The XX symbol's carved in the middle.

"Ana. . . ."

She smiles. "Sorry if it looks weird; I had to rush it."

"'Weird?!' It looks perfect!" I run up, lean over the cross, and smooch her.

Ana just laughs. "I love you too. C'mon, let's get this thing in the ground."

Once it's in, the cross stands just a bit higher than George's gravestone. We stand over them, heads bowed. Even Lloyd joins in.

"Eve was a wonderful friend," Ana begins. "We didn't know her very long, but in the end, she was just as important and special as the rest of us. We could never ask for anything more." She sniffles. "I don't know if only humans can enter Heaven, but if so, then Lord, I pray that you open them for her. I pray that you make an exception, and that your grace reaches all flesh, even that of metal. Amen."

"Amen," we say.


End file.
